Music has always had the ability to influence people, and Dylan Gardner is one of those people. While growing up, 18 year old artist Dylan Gardner was always surrounded by music: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Howlin’ Wolf, Bob Dylan, and more. He created over 100 songs and 10 of them landed on his debut album – Adventures in Real Time.
While many of his reviews and fans would say that his music is original, sophisticatedly innocent, and modernly classic, there are others who would agree that his music includes and has taken the creativity and originality from other well-known bands. On his debut album, his first song, “Let’s Get Started,” alludes to The Beatles.
In “Let’s Get Started,” the very first lines are, “I’ll be John and you’ll be Yoko,” which refer to John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono. The song seemed to basically come off from a Beatles album due to its pop-rock similarities, and Dylan was eager to show his fans how desperate he was to become The Beatles. Looking through some of his pictures, his attire and position are almost identical to what The Beatles had worn in many of their pictures and posters.
“Let’s Get Started,” captures The Beatles’ style and taste in music that is not a Dylan Gardner original. Dylan decided to study musicians and bands, trying to figure out why their music were desired and popular. Due to his research, Dylan has added in methods and techniques in his music that were not created by him but from favored and admired bands.
The song while poppy and upbeat was completely full of choruses that ran 6 out of the 9 sections of the song. Why are people praising his first song on the album when the only real words are being sung at the beginning, middle, and end of the song?
The songs on his album isn’t all full of pop-rock. “I’m Nothing Without You,” is another love song like what every artist would include in their album. The chorus, “Cause I’m nothing without you, There’s something about you, And I’m lost without you,” is played throughout the song about half the time. It’s the type of song that makes many of his fangirls think that they are super special and very important in his life. What kind of love song written by a male isn’t? Just another example to acknowledge the fact that Dylan’s songs are not original and are just copies of other bands.
The name of the album, “Adventures in Real Time,” fits perfectly as it is a hard journey towards just listening to the modern twists of original, well-known artists and bands. What is “real” in the album is that Dylan Gardner is copying his idols in order to skyrocket his music career. Since he is known to making his song contain some “innocence” it is either he is doing it unconsciously or is adding the styles of famous artists and bands on purpose to gain fame.